Three Peaks by Mike Stevens

In the fall of 2012, a couple buddies and I asked the question…what adventure could we create for ourselves that would give us a huge physical challenge and allow us to see some amazing NW sites?

We weren’t looking for a race or a competition (don’t get me wrong – we have a bunch of those on our bucket list)…but an adventure that wasn’t about a time or who could do it faster. It would be about working together, enjoying a multiple day trip, and taking our time to get from point A to point B or in our case from point A to point A.

We came up with the idea of THREE PEAKS – to circumnavigate Mt Adams, Mt Hood, and Mt St Helens in three consecutive days. Three iconic volcanos in the NW that are reasonably close together (as the crow flies) and would each include at least a 50k trip around.

As we got closer to the event dates – September 12-14, 2013 – we decided that we wanted to try and make some good happen from this experience and made a last minute effort to make it a fundraiser. It wasn’t your typical fundraiser though, just like this wasn’t a typical sanctioned event. We hit up our extended community and asked them to donate…donate to any great organization of their choice. We asked that if they’ve been thinking about writing a check, or going online, or making a call to give but have been saying to themselves “I’ll do that later” to just do it today. We also gave people three organizations that inspired us as suggestions: Oregon Active, Washington Trails Association, and the Ben Towne Foundation. Turns out that in less than one week, we raised around $2,000 for not only those three organizations, but also Big Brothers, Up2Us, and the Virginia Mason Foundation. Now all we needed to do was go out and tackle the mountains!

We arrived in Hood River on September 11th and made some last minute stops. We visited Shortt Supply, a top-notch running/sports store in town to get last minute supplies and encouragement for the adventure. Their enthusiasm for Three Peaks was infectious and made me psyched for what the coming days would hold. We stopped in at Pocket Fuel and visited with Heidi and the team. Pocket Fuel was generous enough to donate some nutrition for Three Peaks and help fuel us for the many hours on the trails. After checking into a house we rented for a couple nights and consuming a great dinner at Double Mountain Brewery, it was time to pack up the gear, do some last minute recon on Mt Adams, and hit the hay.

Mt Adams – Mike, Brett, and Tom

It’s a good thing we did some last minute recon on Mt Adams. One thing I learned from Three Peaks is to take more time to research and plan. These are serious adventures and Mt Adams had one unique wrinkle…about ¼ of the trip would be off trail!

Although the recon didn’t give us a clear path around the mountain, it did sharpen our senses to the area and made sure we were prepared with the Suunto Ambit altimeter, our maps, and other useful tools to help us navigate the non-trail section of the mountain.

We left the car around 7am – about one hour later than we had hoped – but ready to tackle any obstacle ahead of us. We made it to Sunrise Camp with no issues and with the help of some mountain goats for company following us for about an hour.

When leaving Sunrise camp, we stayed too high on the mountain, took a more sketchy route than needed, and our time slowed way down, but we made it back to the trail on the NW side and quickly picked up our pace.

Unfortunately, the amount of time to get through the non trail section meant that we were going to finish in the dark. That wouldn’t be a problem, except that we missed the trail and caught another trail down to Morrison Creek Campground vs Cold Springs, where we started.

Luckily for us, we had a SPOT GPS tracking device and called Tyler (and not one of our wives who might freak out a bit more) who we knew was following us around the mountain and he confirmed that we were heading towards the campground.

It was all good – just added 3 more miles and another hour to the days work!

Mt Adams

Mt Hood – Mike, Brett, Ian

After a quick 3 hours of sleep – Brett, Ian, and I headed up to Timberline lodge and jumped on the Timberline trail at 6:30am. I’ve always thought Mt Hood was beautiful from Timberline, but you really see it’s beauty when you get to the west side of the mountain!

We made great time for the first ½ of the day until Brett’s knee said enough is enough. Luckily for us, Tom had taken the day off and we could get cell service for much of the run. Thus Brett took the Elk Cove trail down on the north side of the mountain and Tom picked him up. Ian and I pushed on.

When we got to Eliot Glacier washout (the section of the trail that is closed and not recommended to pass from the rangers), I was bonking. I was ready to find any excuse to turn around, track down Brett, make sure he was ok, and call it a day. Luckily Ian kept me eating and drinking to refuel the fire and pushed us up the mountain. A quick call to Max for some tribal trail knowledge and we found the rope he told us about to help us get down the washout wall filled with scree and boulders.

After getting through the Eliot area, it was smooth sailing from there…but unfortunately another day finishing in the dark (not planned).

We caught a quick bite at Timberline Lodge and jumped in the car for Cougar Washington to get another short 3 hour sleep before hitting Mt St Helens.

Mt Hood

Mt St Helens – Mike, Tom

I had been first exposed to running around volcanos from a trip I took with a buddy Craig around Mt St Helens. It really is a cool mountain and the most manageable of the three for a nice day’s trip. With that being said, on day three…I was just hoping Tom would wake up and say he was ready to roll home.

Luckily for both of us, neither one of us was willing to be the one to throw in the towel and we set off for a great trip on the Loowit Trail.

We made great time for the first 5 hours and then took a wrong turn and added an extra 4 miles and 1.5 hours to the trip. It was a silly mistake and one that should have been avoided, but when we found the right path, we pushed on through the heat.

We finished Mt St Helens in the light and treated ourselves to a terrific burger in Cougar!

Three Peaks was an adventure filled with many challenges, incredible beauty, problem solving, and some sore muscles. A day or two after coming home from Three Peaks, someone asked me what the highlight of the trip was and I couldn’t really come up with an answer on the spot. There really wasn’t one moment on a three day adventure and every mountains had something special to offer in their challenge and beauty. But after thinking about it for a couple days I realized that the highlight of my trip was sharing the experience of doing something special and very out of the ordinary with three great friends! We worked together, made tough decisions, motivated, and supported each other to successfully log 115 miles with over 20,000 ft of elevation gain and loss over three days and finished with a smile each and everyday!

Mt St Helens

Special Thanks to:

Hoka One One – Brett, Tom, and I all wore Hokas for the whole trip and they were awesome!

Shortt Supply – Brian, Patti, and Mark were great in supporting our quest with enthusiasm, Mt Hood knowledge, and a great shopping location for last minute goods.

PocketFuel – sponsored our event with some terrific fuel and calories that are 100% natural and very tasty. I almost put some on my ice cream at home tonight while writing this

UltraSpire – I was given a killer deal and wore the UltraSpire Omega for all three peaks…worked like a charm – perfect size.

Arc’teryx – Thanks Carl for the tech tees. The logo is on and one will be coming your way shortly.